How we’re using germ.io to germ germ.io

We launched the heart and soul of germ.io Omega earlier this week: Flows. I’ve personally been excited about this part from even before we launched, so over the past few days I’ve gone a bit crazy.

A flow is a lot like a project you want to work on. Except, it’s centered around your ideas and how they evolve to execution.

Why are flows that big a deal?

When you work on a project, you aren’t just sitting through meetings or running tasks. You’re working on evolving a bunch of ideas and making them see light. If you’d rather watch than read, here is a slightly nicer video explaining how Flows work.

So how have WE been using flows?

Since the moment we decided to spend the rest of our days and nights cuddling with a germ, we’ve been putting down our ideas and shaping them across, one way or the other. First on paper, then, as independent pieces of thought during the Omega – I.

But since we Got in the Flow with Omega – II, germ.io has become the temple of our entire ideation, development and product management process.

The core Flow that I use at work is called “Evolution of the germ”. It’s basically got everything you need to know (and a few things you don’t) about what’s happening inside our head and IDEs at the germ HQ.

How about a trip through my thought Flow?

A Flow starts with a root germ – the linchpin holding all the other ideas. I like to use the root germ as the “Project Overview” page where I throw in a summary of what we’re trying to do.

Once we decided to start germ.io, we started putting in the next steps we needed to take this germ forward. So if you joined our flow right now and wanted to check out our Business Plan, you know exactly where to go. And if you are the more tech-inclined type, you’d probably want to jump on to the Product side of things to check out our progress on stuff like design, architecture and infrastructure.

I’ve gone a couple of levels deeper in my Flow here to show you how exactly I landed on the idea for this post here.

Down the road, we thought we should showcase some example uses of germ.io. And what better example to showcase than an example showcasing how we came up with the idea to showcase that example!

The pane on the left is probably the most critical piece in Flows – it shows how your ideas evolved to get you to where you are right now. Click on any of the daddy ideas up the chain to get back to that germ.

To give you a descriptive feel of what you get in this left pane, you now know I’m writing this story because I want to (from bottom-up):

Show some specific usecases and examples of Flows

So I can onboard our current users faster

So users can get Active in germ.io easier

So we get to Product/ Market fit faster

Which helps our Growth & User Acquisition

Which is a core next step under our root germ to help get germ.io rolling.

When you share this idea with you, you need to know how you got to this idea and why it’s such a big deal. You need to feel the big picture. But you don’t want to get distracted with all the other little flows of thought running around that don’t really matter to this idea.

That’s exactly what Flows let you do right now – create, evolve and share your Flow of thought without getting lost in stuff that doesn’t matter. If you’ve got an Omega invite already, play around and let us know what you think. Got an interesting usecase you’d like to share? The germ is waiting for you! Plus, it’s part of the honor code, you know…